"We're becoming a nation of wussies."
-- Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell, December 27, 2010
Well, that's a hell of a way to wrap up a year.
Rendell wasn't referring to Captain Compromise, Barack Obama, who — though his tax deal may have won him the 2012 presidential election — continued to give the impression that he has neither the cojones or the confidence to look the GOP in the eye without going on a lash-fluttering display worthy of a Kardashian Miss Piggy.
Instead, Rendell was referring to the postponement of the Philadelphia Eagles-Minnesota Vikings Sunday night football game because of the blizzard heading up the East Coast that day. (Buy yourself a beer, anyone who trudged through the snow to the Civic Center in 1978 to see the Providence College Friars play a big-time basketball game with national implications.)
Oh, well, at least we have our priorities straight.
POLITICAL PABLUM
It was a tough 2010 and we offer some thoughts on those who were in the thick of it.
If there was anything resembling a mass mourning in Vo Dilun this year, it was for the beloved, brash and beautiful Ben Mondor. Ben and the all-star crew he assembled out at McCoy Stadium brought the PawSox back from death's door, and he touched more people's lives that any politician. If we are indeed going ahead with the merger of Pawtucket and Central Falls, may P+J suggest it be dubbed "Mondorville" — a name of which we could truly be proud.
Kwik Kwiz: Was gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio telling Barack Obama to take his endorsement and "shove it" a) sad, b) ignorant and classless, c) desperate, d) suicidal, or e) all of the above? If you answered "embarrassing to everyone living in Rhode Island," you got it right. Find another state to drag down in the future, Frankie, we'll pay the moving costs.
Huzzahs to Angel Taveras on his election as mayor of Our Little Towne. As all the talk show jocks bloviated about John Lombardi and Steve Costantino, Angel floated down to gather as many votes as the pair of them combined.
Adios to Governor Don "Laughing Boy" Carcieri, who asserted his troglodyte credentials with his clueless commentary on immigration policy and marriage equality. The operative phrase is "sexual orientation," which he'll never learn because he probably thinks, like many other sad-ass God botherers that he chose heterosexuality. Superior behavior knocks at the door and his head is still in the sand.
But even if we often disagreed with The Don, the two-term head honcho of The Biggest Little will go down as someone who was a decent man, didn't steal, loved playing with his kids and grandkids more than he liked playing governor, enjoyed talking to P+J about such pressing policy issues as Brown football and local golf courses, and was able to be out of state when most huge weather catastrophes hit the Ocean State, which is no mean trick. Forget about the Senate, Don, go hit the first tee.
This past year enhanced the legend of the clueless but entertaining George and Gracie (or would that be Sonny and Cher) of local politics, Christopher Young and Kara Russo. Chris went viral on the Internet with his crooning performance on The Rhode Show and Kara made waves with her pseudo-scientific anti-abortion rants as their ground-breaking public courtship thrilled dozens in the Biggest Little.
